Narrowed-knitted web, hosiery made therefrom, and mode of making same.



No. 897,496, PATENTED SEPT. 1, 1908. R. W. SCOTT.

NARROWED KNITTED WEB, HOSIERY MADE THEREFROM, AND MODE OF MAKING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5,1906.

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AND MUDE 0P MAKING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5, 1906.

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UNITED STATES PATENT @FFIC ROBERT W. SCOTT, LEEDS POINT, NEW JERSEY, AS SIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO LOUIS N. D.

' WILLIAMS, OF OGONTZ, PENNSYLVANIA.

. NARROWED-KNITTED WEB, HOSIERY MADE THEREFROM, AND MODE MAKING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 5, 1906. Serial No. 320,268.

Patented Sept. 1, 1908.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT W.'Soo1"r, a

citizen of the United States, residing in Leeds Point, Atlantic county, New Jersey, have invented certain Improvements in Narrowed-Knitted Webs, in Hosiery Made Therefrom, and in the Mode of Making Same, of which the'foll'owing is a specification.

The object ofmy invention is to produce a stocking havin a seamless heel and a seamless leg, with s aped'calf portion having a band resemblin the bordering wales, which are resent in t e calf portion of a stocking ma e from. a flat fashioned web, my improved stocking being also rovided, if desired, with a seamless toe pocliet, and a seamless foot with gussets, whereby the instep portion of the stocking may be wider than i the foot portion.

Certain features of my invention are also applicable to the production of seamless tubular webs having sha ed portions with an equivalent for the usua bordering wales and intended for other purposes than the manufacture of stockings.

In the accom anying drawingpzFigure 1 is a view of en cient of a stoc ing to illustrate my present invention, the wales of stitches being represented by single lines Fi 2 is an exaggerated view of part of the we fashioning the same without disturbing the wales which represent the bordering wales, and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view representing an arrangement of needles in a knitting machine devised for the carrying out of my invention.

Referring in the first instance to Fig. 3 of the drawing the small circles numbered from 1 to 72 inclusive, represent the cylinder needles of a circular knitting machine provided with means for knitting seamless heel and toe pockets, and the letters from a' to q and from a, to g. inclusive, represent fashioning needles which operate in an annular dial surrounding the cylinder above the top of the same, whereby these needles draw stitches in the same direction as the cylinder needles, and

hence produce a plain-web, the machine in this respect being distinct from one of the rib type, in which the dial needles are located on v the inside of the cylinder and draw stitches in a direction opposite to those of the maining 34 upon the dial needles.

illustrating my improved method oftube from 106 wales to 72 wales, this reduc tion being abrupt ifall of the dial needles .transferred their stitches and were put out of action at once, and being more or less gradual if the dial needles transferred their stitches and were put out of action successively, the angle of reduction being graduated as desired, either by retirement of the dial needles sin ly or in series of two or more at once, or

by hitting any desired number of courses of stitches between successive retirements of the dial needles.

In the production of the stocking such as shown in the drawing, a shaped calf with narrowings y and a foot tube with gussets y are produced; and outside of the narrowings 'y is a band :10, and outside'of the gu-ssets y a ing of a series or grou of continuous parallel wales which resemb e the bordering Wales made-consequently, although in my 1mproved stocking the wales comprising the ands m and w are part of a continuous tubular web and not wales on the borders. or edges of a flat web, I have, for convenience, referred to the groups of continuous parallel wales constituting said bands as and :c as

bordering wales which they are in the sense that they border the narrowin s whereby the shaping of the calf is effects and the instep gussets are produced. The dial needles are, by preference, retired singl and at relatively short intervals. lettered from c to and from c" to q inclusive, areem loyed f or the shaping of the calf portion of tie leg of the stocking, and the The dia needles.

narrower band each of these bands consist- '85 formed on the edges of the flat web from' ,Whichan ordinary full-fashioned stocking is dial needles 0,, b and a, b are employed-for the production of the gussets at the instep portion of the stocking, the needles 1, 2, a,

3, 4,, b, and 6, and 72,- 71, a, 70, 69, 1), es and 67, being those upon which the bordering wales w in the shaped ortion of the calf are produced, and the nee es 1, 2, 7 2 and 71, being those upon which the bordering Wales at in the gusseted portion of the foot are knitted. The number and disposition of the needles of the cylinder and dial thus shown are, however, urely arbitrary, and are not intended to in icate the actual conditions in practice, as the o erative machine will have more needles botli in the cylinder and dial than are here representeda I will describe the shaping o eration as offected at the calf of the stoc ring, and the gusseting operation as effected at the instep,

in referenceto one side of the stocking only, it being understood that the shapin operations at the opposite side of the stoc ing are precisely the same. Assuming that the leg ortion of the stocking is being knitted of ull diameter, the first narrowing operation for the shapin of the calf portion of the stocking is e ected by transferring the stitches from the needles in the following way: cto6,7toc,8to7,dto8,9tod,1O to 9, e to 10, 11 to e, 12 to 11 and soon until needle g transfers its stitch to needle 34, whereupon said needle (1 is retired. After the production of any desired number of courses of stitches further narrowing is effected by transferring the stitches in the same way until needle p is reached, which needle is then retired, and these o erations are repeated, stitches transferred rom each needle to its adjoining needle, and the needles 0, n, m, l, k, i, i, h, g,f, e, d and c successively retired, by which time the full narrowing operation will have been com leted, the doubling being alwa s effectec from the needle 0 onto the neec le 6, so that the wales produced upon the needles 6, 5, b, a, 3, a, 2 and 1 are never disturbed but produce the v band a; of continuous parallel stitches and .,the web produced upon the remaining needles retains its uniform appearance, there being no doubling of stitches in any of said wales. While I refer to drop out the narrowing ,wale nee les inregular sequence, this is notnecessa as said needles may be dropped in any esired order, so long as the narrowing wale needle next to the innermost bordering Wale needle isthe last to be retired.

The fashioned portion ofmy. improved web presents the same appearance as that of a web fashioned upon a straight machine of the Cotton type, with this exception, that the transferred stitches overlap the bordering wales on the face of the web instead of the stitches of the innermost bordering wales overlapping stitches of the adjoining standi'ng wales, as the doiwhen.

the bordering wales are carrie inwardly 'onto the standlng wales as in such Cotton machine.

Having narrowed the tubular web froma diameter available for the leg ortion of the stocking to one available for t e ankle por-- tion, the knitting of saidankle tube pro ceeds until the formation of the seamless heel becomes necessary. lhis seamless heel is produced in the ordinary way,by tam-- porarily throwing out of action but perm.it

ting to retain their stitches, the needles around one-half of the cylinder, say for instance, thosefrom 19 to 54 inclusive, and

then knitting to and fro upon the remaining needles from 18 to 1, and 72 to 55, andupon the dial needles a, b' and a, I), first narrowing and then widening upon the end] needles. of the set, say for instance, the needles 9 to 18 inclusive, at one end and the needles 64 to 55 inclusive at the other end, and then resuming the production of tubular web for the foot. At this time the formation of the inste gussets is effected by first transferring stito es from needle 41 to 2, 3 to a, 4 to 3, and b to 4, needle I) then going out of action, while on the next narrowing the stitch is transferred from needle a to needle 2, andsaid needle-a is lit out of action. The cylinder needles 0 y are now in action, and tubular web is knitted upon the same for the production of the narrow I foot, and after the completion of the latter a seamless toe pocket is formed upon the needles 18 to 1 and 72 to 55, in the manner before set forth in explaining the formation of the heel pocket, and preparatory to beginning the formation of a new stocking upon all of the needles. Y

- By the above described operations I am enabled to produce a stocking having a seamless leg an foot, seamless heel and toe pockets, and shaped calf and gussets having bordering wales, and therefore presenting the same appearance as the cones ending portions of what is termed a fu stocking, the number of gusset-bordering wales being less than the number of bordering wales in the shaped calf.

The use of one legefashioning needle for every two cylinder needles ispreferred, be:

fashioned cause it is the customary practlce in knitting womens stockings to narrow the web to the extent of one-third of thenumbe'r of wales i contained therein. It will be evident, however, that more or less of these leg fashioning dial needles may be employed without dearting from the essentlal features of my invention, and the numberv of gusseting needles may also be varied in like manner,

but thesegusseting needles should never extend beyond the bounds of the central group of cylinderneedles which are always in action in knitting the heel, otherwise they amass while I especially claim this roduct,- my invention may also be adopted m-the manufacture of shaped, tubular, seamless webs, with bordering wales on the shaped portions, and intended for other pur oses than stockings, for instance, for ma ing the legs of drawers, the sleeves of shirts, and the like.

, therewith.

4. A maehine-knit stocking having seamless heel and toe pockets, a seamless foot, and a seamless leg having shaped calf portion with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith.

5; A machine-knit stocking having a seamless heel and a seamless foot having instep gussets with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith.

' 6. A machine knit stocking having a seamless heel, a seamless foot having instep gussets with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, and a'seamless leg with shaped calf having bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith.

7. A machine-knit stocking having seamless heel and toe poqkets, and a seamless foot with instep gussets having bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith.

8. A machine-knit stocking having seamless heel and toe pockets, a seamless foot having instep gussets with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, and a seamless leg having a sha ed calf portion with bordering wales ant narrowing wales interknitted therewith.

9. A machine-knit stocking having a shaped, seamless leg with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, and a seamless foot with gussets, also having bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, the latter bordering wales being less in number than those of the leg.

10. A machine-knit stocking having a shaped, seamless leg with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, a seamless heel, and a seamlessfoot with gussets, also having bordering "wales and narrowing wales interknitted therewith, the latter bordering wales being iessin number than those of the leg.

11. A machine-knit stocking having a shaped, seamless leg, with bordering wales and narrowing wales interknittedt herewith, a seamless heel, and a seamless foot with gussets having bordering wales and narrow ing wales interknitted therewith, the latter wales and their bordering wales being continued unbroken around the rear of the heel.

12. The mode herein described of produc ing a shaped, tubular, seamless web, said mode consisting in first knitting the web upon two sets of needles, one set comprising needles employed to knit bordering wales and standing wales and the other set com prising needles upon which are knitted narrowing wales, transferring a wale in a part of the fabric some distance removed from the bordering wales, and correspondingly shifting stitches of all of the wales intervening between said transferred wale and the bordering wales, the final transferred stitch being interknitted with a bordering Wale.

13. The mode herein described of producing a stocking having a shaped, seamless leg and a seamless heel, said mode consisting in first knitting a tubular web upon two sets of needles, one set comprising needles employed to knit bordering wales and standing wales, and the other set comprising needles upon which are knitted narrowing wales, transferringa Wale in a part of the fabric some distance removed from the bordering wales, and correspondingly shifting stitches of all of the wales intervening between said transferred Wale and the bordering wales, the final transferred stitch being interknitted with a bordering wale, repeating this operation until the desired narrowing of the web has been effected, then suspending the knitting operation upon a portion of the fabric, and then narrowing and widening u on the remaining portion to produce a seamless heel pocket thereon.

14. The mode herein described of producing a stocking with shaped, seamless leg, seam less heel, and narrowed seamless foot, said mode consistingin first knitting a tubular web upon two sets of needles, one set comprising needles employed to knit bordering wales and standing wales and, the other set comprising needles upon which are knitted narrowing wales, transferring a wale in a part of the fabric some distance removed from the bordering wales, and correspondingly shifting stitches of all of the wales intervening between said transferred wale and the bordering wales, the final transferred stitch being interknitted with a bordering Wale, repeating this operation until the desired narrowing has been effected, suspending the knitting operation upon a portion of the fabric, narrowlng andwidening upon the remaining portion, ineluding foot narrowing wales, to form a seamless heel pocket, resuming the produc tion of tubular web, repeating the narrowing operation as before until the desired narrowing of the foot tube has been eliected, and I tion upon a portion of the fabric, narrowingthen proceeding with the knitting of said narrowed foot tube.

15. The mode herein described of producing astocking with shaped seamless leg, seemless heel, narrowed seamless foot, and seamless ferred stitch being interlniitted. with e bordering Wale, repeating this operation until the desired narrowing of the web has been eilected, then suspending the knitting operaand widening upon the remaining portion, including toot narrowing Wales, to form a seamless heel pocket, resuming the produe-' tion of tubular Web, then narrowing in the same manner as before until the desired narrowing ef' the foot tube has been effected, then proceeding with the knitting of said narrowed foot tube, and then repeating the operations before resorted to in order to form a, seamless heel pocket for the purpose of producing a seamless toe rowed foot tube.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presenee of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT W. soor'r.

Witnesses HAMILTON D. TURNER,

KATE A. BEADLE.

pocket upon said nar- 

